Percussionist-composer Matt Weston has performed throughout the US and in
Europe. He has studied and/or collaborated with Arthur Brooks, Bill
Dixon, Kevin Drumm, Jim O'Rourke, Milford Graves, and Jack Wright, among
others. Past performances include appearances at the Vision Festival, the
Three Days In October festival (commemorating the 30th anniversary of the
October Revolution in Jazz), and the Autumn Uprising festival. His unique
approach to percussion and electronics has earned him critical praise in
such magazines as Cadence, Signal To Noise, and Bananafish for his debut
solo release Vacuums. In addition to his solo work, he is a member of Barn Owl with guitarist Chris Cooper and bassist Andy Crespo. They have collaborated with Le Quan
Ninh and Jack Wright, and recently released "My Very First Barn Owl EP" on
the Crank Satori label. www.mattweston.com
"Weston's drumming is filled with subtleties. He uses a light touch to convey muted sensitivity by deftly massaging the skins and rims. His playing has a stark reality to it, a feeling of nomadic wandering without hope of reaching nirvana. When his playing becomes brusque...the aggressiveness is overt to the point of being disconcertingly intense. Weston puts a unique spin on the drum solo and creates tones of atypical sonority. He is a sound explorer on an apparent endless quest for purity." Frank Rubolino, Cadence magazine
Katt Hernandez has been living in the Boston area, playing the violin, for
the last six years. She has collaborated with a magnificently variated sea
of musicians, dancers, and others including—but certainly not limited to—Joe Maneri, Zack Fuller, Marc Bisson, Matt Somalis, John Voigt, Allisa
Cardone, Gordon Beeferman, Jonathan Vincent, Walter Wright, Eric
Rosenthal, Jeff Arnal, Jaimie McGlaughlin, Andrew Neumann, Dave Gross, and
Hans Rickheit. She has twice been invited to perfrom on the Autumn
Uprising, High Zero, Mobius ArtRages, and Improvised and Otherwise
festivals, and has also appeared at the Montreaux-Detroit, Brandeis New
Music, Boston CyberArts, Michiania, IAJE, IASJ, and Ear Whacks festivals.
She has been a guest artist at MIT, Harvard, and the New England
Conservatory, performed in a vast slew of local venues and—to date—any
number of subway passages, urban grottos, and troglyditical performace
spaces, as well as other experimental and life-making spaces throughout
the Bos-Wash metropolii.
"…The Long Awaited Etcetera puts Hernandez squarely on the radar…
as one of the few violinists of consequence in improvised music." Stanley
Zappa, Bannanafish, Issue Seventeen. zeitgeist.numachi.com/katt
"With nimble fingers—and an embouchure to die for (lips and tongue
becoming subtle acrobats challenging a high blown wire without a
net)—Wright ties his axe in knots and unties it with the dexterity of a
prestidigitator. His mysterious, un-sax-like tones may sound like
something imagined by a science fiction writer creating a Martian culture,
but one thing the sax does exceptionally well is imitate the human voice,
and Wright furthers this tradition of soulful cries by blending his own
guttural or shrieked voicings with those of his instrument. Despite its
difficulties, Wright's music remains human and exciting because it is
clear and true." www.springgardenmusic.com
We're Breaking Up is the electronics project of Michael Rodgers. Melting channels on his mixing desk have prompted some reconsideration of sound sources, but the approach to the music remains the same. Michael is a multi-instrumentalist who played in punk bands in Memphis before getting involved with free improvisation. Living in London since 2000, he brings a sense of urgency and openness to many musical combinations.
Ongoing projects include Broken Hands (guitar duo with Anthony Guerra), We're Breaking Up (solo electronics), and performances with Tim Goldie, Nishide Takehiro, and others. Performances have included Freedom of the City (London), Musica Ex Machina (Bilbao), and London's first Placard Headphone Festival. Michael is also co-founder (with Anthony Guerra) of TwoThousandAnd. Michael's published recordings to date include cds by the groups Broken Hands, We're Breaking Up and Neutral Density Trio. In November 2003 We're Breaking Up contributed a track for New York-based Antiopic label, as part of their Allegorical Power series.
Dion Workman is a New Zealand born, New York based artist and writer. For the past decade Workman has performed as an improvisor and composer of experimental music. Workman's 2003 composition "Ching" (Antiopic) was awarded the Max Brand prize for innovation in electronic and electro-acoustic music. A CD of laptop improvisations by Workman and Julien Ottavi will be released on Erstwhile later this year.
Can't is Jessica Rylan singing, dancing, and playing a home-made modular synthesizer. The performances are brief, physical, and feature a high density of information. The music revolves around distinctive noise textures, simple melodies and rhythms, and lots of intermodulation. She has recordings available on her own IRFP label, in addition to RRR, Heresee and Breaking World Records. http://irfp.net
"A strange yet alluring hybrid of noise, dance, and performance art." The Noise, Boston
"A one-woman hurricane who shows a distortion box who's boss." The Boston Globe
"A nearly unbearable contemplative gravity." Ian Nagoski, Dusted Magazine
"One of the strangest things I've seen in a while." Thurston Moore, Arthur Magazine